Return of the Bungy
As the Stray bus pulled into town for the night I saw a familiar face bounce out the door and start unloading the bags... "Hey Mr Yellow! How's it goin'?" Chops, my bungy-buddy and driver from North to South was back around. We spent the night at the pub swapping gossip about who did what to who and where since we'd last spoken. They kept up the whole Mr Colour thing all the way back to Auckland, apparently there was a guy who walked like me, talked like me (and was the next best thing but not quite me) So they called him Mr Lemon.
Next day we saw some more seals at a couple of different places before heading to Picton, to catch the ferry to Wellington. Wellington is Chop's home town so we (suprisingly) ended up having a few bevvy's. I especially liked one bar that filled half full bottles of vodka with all different fruits/foods/herbs to create fancy flavours. My personel favourite was the apple and cinnamon combo, good either on its own or with a splash of coke.
Next day was the 'express' ride from Wellington to Auckland. 12 fun-filled hours of looking at North Island's vaguely Lord of the Rings-esque scenery (its not half as nice as South Island), playing tractor and coming up with superhero powers.
In fact, heres one for you... If you had any super power in the world - but only one (not like super man who is strong, can fly, has eye lasers etc - more like x-men, who only have 1 thing they can do.) What would it be? And would you use it for good or evil?
Be creative, what would reflect your personality?
My special power would be the ability to make people stoned. I'd be called something like "Marijuana-man" and I'd use my power for good. Just think of the practicalities of it... All Dr X. McEvil has to do is press that big red button and all of humanity is destroyed. But Wait! Its Marijuana-man, here to save the day! One quick point - and you know what? Dr X. McEvil doesn't want to destroy the world any more. He's happy to sit there giggling at the little flashing red light he had installed. Its actually pretty funny being a supervillan... Suddenly! His number 1 shouts and pleads at Dr X to hit the switch, BUT WAIT! What's Marijuana-man pulling out of his pocket...? Why its a big bar of 'Cadbury's Dairymilk' you know what i'm saying...
Nobody gets killed, everybody's happy. And after he comes down, if he keeps being evil, ultimately i'll rob him of his ambition.
***
We stopped off for lunch at Taupo, and saw Mt. Ruapehu on the way there. Mt Ruapehu and Mt Tongariro (also known as Mt Doom in LOTR) link two ends of one of the best walks in the world. I didn't speak to anyone who didn't like it. Unfortunately, as the weather was crap on the way down, and I have to catch my flight now Im on the way back up, I guess I'll have to leave it till next time:)
On the way to Auckland, we stopped off at Stray HQ to pick up the notepad/diary I lost near Haast (Chops found it on the bus) and also Rangi who was driving south again the next day.
When we finally got to Auckland, we spent the night playing various drinking games - including one called 'Chicken' which I couldn't do justice if I described it here, so just ask me about it sometime.
The next day I'd agreed to meet Chops, Halo (another stray driver) and a couple of guys from the bus to do the Auckland Harbour bridge bungy. One by one through the day, everyone dropped out until I found myself alone walking into the AJ Hackett office. 'Ah well.' I thought, 'I'm sure there'll be someone else there jumping at the same time.'
"Matt?" "Matt Kings-Worth?"
"North-Yeah. Thats me. Sorry, am I late?"
"No, No. You're the jumper for today aren't you?"
"Is it just me?"
"Yep! Good eh?"
I was led 600m out to middle of the Auckland Harbour bridge where after slowly climbing higher and higher above the water, I climbed a ladder into the underside of a steel bubble (similar in design to the Nevis cable car) fastened to the underside of the bridge.
There was a couple of the AJ Hackett looking blokes, then a man in a white boiler suit who was supervising them un-strap a huge bottle of water from the bunjy rig they were about to connect to me. When I asked if it was some kind of weekly check type thing, they laughed and said "Oh no. We're still in the test phase with this bungy, its only been a couple of months since it opened..."
Then something cool happened which put aside any doubts which had just entered my mind. As I was sitting in the shaped metal chair, having my feet strapped into the harness, one whole half of the steel bubble slowly lifted open to reveal the underside of the bridge and a view out over Auckland Harbour... I felt like I was James Bond. All it needed was the dude in the white boiler suit to chortle in a German accent 'No Mr Kingsnorth, I expect you to die.'
Test jump number 659/1000
(thats what my official 'AJ Hackett test pilot' T-shirt says.)
The jump was great fun, it brought my New Zealand bungy total to 5, and I hope I get to do one again. Apparently theres an AJ Hacket bungy in France somewhere.
The rest of my time in Auckland was a bit crappy. Auckland is a pretty average city with a few cool things to do, but overall it has no 'x' factor. It just seems dreary somehow and doesn't help you out if you're feeling down.
When I first got to Auckland after Perth I thought it didn't match up because I'd had such a great time in Oz. Since travelling around NZ, and having had a great time, I realised its the city thats the problem not me. I also had an email from someone who said 'you've seemed a bit down recently on the website?' That added paranoia to my mood because if they'd thought something was wrong, did everyone? And just to add to that my dorm really stank of wee! It's fair to say I left Auckland on a low, which is bad as I had the time of my life in New Zealand.
Luckily, Fiji was the perfect medicine...